Yes, Witchfire is solo, strictly and stubbornly and blessedly solo, and that is the whole point of me writing about a dark-fantasy FPS on a channel that lives on plate carriers. A nine person studio called The Astronauts, the team behind The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, made a brutally hard single-player shooter that welds the extraction loop onto Souls-like combat. Barely anyone in the extraction rooms talks about it, which is a shame, because it is doing something none of the big names are. I keep recommending it to people who say they love the decision to leave, then watching them blink when I mention witches.
I have spent a lot of evenings explaining how to make PvP extraction feel more like PvE, which usually means turn off squad fill, hunt the calmest lobbies, and play peacefully so the matchmaking leaves you alone. Witchfire makes all of that unnecessary, because there are no other players at all, and the pressure a Tarkov gets from a sweaty stranger round the next corner, this one gets from your own greed and a difficulty curve that will happily end your run.
The Calamity, which is the raid with a witch in it
The extraction angle is cleverer than it first sounds, because you head out into a perilous zone the game calls a Calamity, you fight, and killing enemies grows your powers and your arsenal while you scavenge loot as you go. Then comes the decision that makes it an extraction game, whether you pull out now and bank what you have earned, or push deeper for greater rewards and risk losing the lot. If you die, you get a single one-time chance to reclaim what you dropped, and that reclaim is the whole tension in one mechanic. It is the same risk-versus-greed loop I love in the bigger extraction shooters, just wrapped in gothic horror and built entirely for one player.
What Witchfire proves, and what I wish more of the genre would admit, is that you do not need other humans to make an extraction game tense, because the stranger who ruins your extract, here, is you, when you push one room too far. If the thing you actually love about these games is the decision to leave or stay, and not the player-versus-player, this is that decision distilled, which is why I keep handing it to people who thought they wanted a lobby. I have died in Calamities because I got greedy in exactly the way I get greedy in Oregon and the Zone, one more room and one more pickup, and the game does not lecture you about it, it just takes the bag.
Hard on purpose, and selling anyway
The combat is the other half of the appeal, and it is genuinely hard in a deliberate, Souls-like way, built around a roguelite progression system the game calls Arcana. You learn it run by run, getting a little further and a little stronger each time, rather than breezing through, and the gunplay is weighty and precise rather than spray-and-pray. That suits the deliberate tactical player far more than the twitch crowd, which is the half of the audience I actually recognise. Arcana is what keeps that from being pure punishment, because your power grows across runs, and a wall that stopped you dead an hour ago becomes a place you push past with better tools and better knowledge.
Die and try again starts to feel like progress rather than a slap, and the story is kept light in Early Access, with a fuller narrative planned for the full release, so right now it is all about the moment-to-moment challenge. That is strong enough to carry it, and I would rather a hard loop with a thin plot than a cutscene dump with nothing underneath it, which is a preference I have earned by sitting through the other kind. It is doing well, too, which it deserves, because The Reckoning update in December 2025 added the first melee weapons, new mini-bosses, a shooting range and a bestiary, and it landed alongside the game crossing half a million sales. Worthplaying had that number, and the shooting range and bestiary are small additions that tell you the team understands its audience. A hard game gets a lot friendlier when you can practise a weapon and study an enemy before it is trying to kill you.
On Steam it sits at Very Positive, with well over ninety percent of thousands of reviews positive, and for a nine person team making a hard, single-player niche game, that is a brilliant result. The internet has a habit of treating solo PvE as a compromise until a sales graph embarrasses the room, and I have a habit of loving the game in front of me while the consensus is still calling the genre a PvP sport. People follow people, and I try to follow the session, which is why half a million sales is me coming off a Calamity buzzing. I am refusing to wait until it is fashionable to say the no-lobby version of this loop was the point, rather than agreeing with a Steam badge.
Early Access, and already the game I would finish
Witchfire is still in Early Access, and The Astronauts’ own roadmap points 1.0 at sometime in 2026, with at least one more major update expected first. Go in knowing it is unfinished, and that the full story and the final polish are still to come, which is the honest version of the invitation. What is there already is a complete, satisfying, properly challenging solo experience, which is more than a lot of 1.0 stamps manage, and I would rather say that than wait for a version number to give me permission. If you love the extraction loop and you are tired of the same modern military settings, or you just want a genuinely hard single-player game with a real identity, Witchfire is unlike anything else I have recommended.
If you specifically want the mil-sim fantasy, the ballistics and the plate carriers, this dark-fantasy detour will not convert you, and a prettier pentagram will not change that. If hard games frustrate rather than motivate you, the Souls-like difficulty will wear thin fast, and everyone else who wants tense, solo, single-player extraction with a real identity should give it a proper look. For more solo PvE picks across the genre, I rounded up the best solo PvE extraction shooters to play right now, and the extraction shooter matcher will help you find your fit. The video on this page is me making the wider case for a solo offline PvE door in a neighbouring game, and Witchfire already built that door and put a witch behind it.
I keep coming back because it is funny when it is trying to be grim, a Calamity and a greed decision I always make, from a nine person studio that did not wait for the genre to give them permission, which is the product.
FAQ
Is Witchfire single-player?
Yes, it is strictly single-player, with no other players anywhere near it, a dark-fantasy FPS that welds the extraction loop onto Souls-like combat and was made by a nine person studio. If you came here hoping for a squad, you came to the wrong church, and if you came here tired of lobbies, you are in the right one.
How does the extraction loop work in Witchfire?
You head into a perilous zone called a Calamity, fight and scavenge, then decide whether to pull out and bank what you have earned or push deeper for greater rewards. Die and you get a single one-time chance to reclaim what you dropped, and that one reclaim is the whole tension in one mechanic, where the stranger who ruins your extract is you.
Is Witchfire finished?
Not yet, because it is still in Early Access, with 1.0 targeted for sometime in 2026 and at least one more major update expected first. What is there already is a complete, challenging solo experience, which is more than a lot of finished games manage, so go in knowing the full story and the final polish are still to come, and do not go in expecting a stub.
Who made Witchfire?
A tiny nine person studio called The Astronauts, the team behind The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and for a team that size making a hard, single-player niche game, crossing half a million sales is a brilliant result. I like that number, and I like it more because the game did not flatten itself to get there, which is the result I actually wanted to see.
Is Witchfire a hard game?
Yes, deliberately so, because the combat is genuinely hard in a Souls-like way, built around a roguelite progression system called Arcana, and you learn it run by run, getting a little further and a little stronger each time. If hard games frustrate rather than motivate you, this one will wear thin fast, and I am not going to pretend otherwise to make the pitch kinder.
Who is Witchfire for?
It is for anyone who loves the extraction loop but is tired of the same modern military settings, or who just wants a genuinely hard single-player game with a real identity, and it scratches that itch from a completely different angle. If you specifically want plate carriers and ballistics, this dark-fantasy detour will feel like the wrong church again.
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